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ADDRESS 



DELIVERED ON THE DAY OF THE 



AfEOlFAE. FAif, MAY M. 11S411, 



AT A UNITED MEETING OF THE 



RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES IN ANDOVER. 



■.S^ 

BY B. B. EDWARDS, 

PROF. IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ANDOVER. 



\ 



ANDOVER: 

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAIW PEIRCE 

ALLEN AND MORRILL, PRINTERS. 

1841. 



Ando-cer, May 14, 1841. 
Rev. B. B. Edwards — Dear Sir, 

The undersigned, ministers of tlie several denominations of Christians in 
this town, having to-day, with tlieir people, listened, with great pleasure, to 
your eloquent and appropriate Address on tlie cliaracter of General William 
H. Harrison, our lamented Chief Magistrate, and wishing to have the senti- 
ments expressed in it placed before their fellow-townsmen, and the public 
generally, do hereby most respectfully request a copy for publication. 

B. LORING. 

S. C. JACKSOxN. 

J. PAGE. 

S. FULLER, Jr. 

J. L. TAYLOR. 

N. HERVEY. 

Z. A. MUDGE. 

WM. H. GRISWOLD. 



ADDRESS. 



The event whicli has called us together on this occasion, 
is commonly spoken of as unexpected. That the President 
of the United States should die, immediately upon his ele- 
vation to his high office, appears to have been wholly unan- 
ticipated. Possibly not one in a thousand of those who con- 
tributed to his election, ever imagined, that he could claim no 
exemption from the common lot of man. It seems to have 
been taken for granted, that after one had reached the object 
of his wishes, perhaps the fruit of a long and hard struggle, 
he should be permitted to enjoy it awhile ; that even the in- 
exorable enemy would show some pity. 

But is it so ? Does the crown which was yesterday put on, 
sit more firmly than that which has been worn for half a cen- 
tury ? Is the life, which is vigorous to-day, insured against the 
accidents of to-morrow ? On the contrary, is there not in the 
anxiety and heated action which are incident to the pursuit of 
power, or wealth, or great usefulness, an obvious cause, why 
the over-tasked frame should suddenly fail ? Besides, no ob- 
servation is more common, and none is more just, than that 
adversity is set over against prosperity ; and often it is an in- 
visible line which divides them. 



■ We read, last week, in the public papers, of a family that 
had come into the possession of about all which is commonly 
regarded as desirable. A joyous household shared in the 
nameless deligiits which wealth honorably acquired, could se- 
cure. But in three or four days, an only son was borne from 
that household to his burial-place, and the frantic mother, 
like R,achel, refused to be comforted. 

Last November, a youthful preacher,^ whom some of you 
knew, was set apart to his work. Many years he had spent, 
most industriously, in the fields of human and sacred learn- 
ing. Rich in acquisition, graceful in manners, bland in tem- 
per, strong in aspiration, he entered upon his labors. A large, 
and almost for the first time unanimous, congregation hung 
upon his lips, as if they uttered the accents of angels. The 
educated and the illiterate alike acknowledged his mastery 
over them. But he passed away like some dream of the night 
which is too delicious to be real. In four short months, he 
added another impressive commentary upon frail man's fond- 
est hopes. He had hardly essayed his polished armor before 
he must put it oft' forever. 

On the 17th of April last, a morning newspaper in a neigh- 
boring city informed us that the proprietor and principal edi- 
tor would on that afternoon embark for Europe. He had 
labored long and almost convulsively in his vocation. His 
sleepless vigilance was crowned with success. Those for 
whom he battled so unintermittingly came into power, and 
the worn laborer thought that he might rest from his toil. 
"I have dreamed all my life," he said, ''of seeing Europe. 
To-day I go : yes, I am going to Rome. These eyes will 

" Rev. William Bradford Homer. 



soon gaze on tlie Eternal City." He did embark, but it was 
upon that great ocean from wliich no voyager returns. 

These, however, it may be said, were individuals in private 
life. They did not sit in the seat of presidents or kings. 
Surely the men who are high in power, and who are en- 
trenchina: themselves in the warm affections of millions, 
will not thus pass away. Their premature death will 
not crush in the germ hopes which are so sanguine. But 
what is the testimony of the historian ? What are tlie annals 
of States and Empires ? Is it not the concurrent voice of 
history both sacred and profane, that it is the good, the ar- 
dently beloved among sovereigns who die first, while those, 
"whose hearts are dry as summer dust, burn to the socket." 

Across the centre of the Holy Land, from the Mediterra- 
nean to the Jordan, is a large plain, called the valley of Jez- 
reel, or the plain of Esdraelon, which has been the theatre of 
many sanguinary battles, from the days of Joshua to those of 
Bonaparte and Sir Sidney Smith. Thirty-three hundred years 
ago, the brook which winds its way through this plain, was 
called the Kishon of battles. A few hundred years later, its 
pure water was reddened with the blood of a Jewish monarch, 
who there fell mortally wounded. Never, perhaps, did death 
come in more affecting circumstances. Hardly in the page of 
universal history is there a character more faultless than his. 
In his continued life, the very existence of his nation was 
bound up. He fell too in the meridian of his days, when he 
was just ready to enjoy the fruits of the gigantic reformation 
which he had accomplished. Well might the tearful Jere- 
miah lament for Josiah, while all the singing men and singing 
women spake of him in their lamentations, for the hope of the 



6 



nation was extinct, and we sliut up the remaining history in 
despair. 

Coming down to modern times, we find that the best king 
that France ever had, Henry the Fourth, the most interesting 
monarch, it is said, whom history describes, the defender of 
Protestantism against hosts of enemies, whose only victories, 
during a large part of his life, were those which he won over 
the hearts of his subjects by his generosity, magnanimity and 
patience, fell by the dagger of a Jesuit ; he fell too just as 
he was on the point of commencing a great enterprise for the 
peace of Europe. The grief for his death partook of the 
character of madness. Tears were the least tokens of sor- 
row. Many persons died on learning the catastrophe. 

A few years earlier, the English Josiah, the good king Ed- 
ward, as he was familiarly called, died in the sixteenth year 
of his age, leaving a nation in tears, the Protestant cause in 
despair, and the throne to one whose characteristic epithet is, 
" the bloody." 

' On the 2d of May, 1816, an English princess, of the age 
of twenty-one years, was married. She was the undisputed 
heiress to the most enlightened and coveted throne of earth ; 
and to which she would have brought the spirit of an Eng- 
lish queen of former days. She had read much and with dis- 
crimination. There was a mingled dignity and sweetness in 
her looks. Warmth and openness of heart marked her con- 
duct through life. Her cherished place of resort was not tiie 
palace, but the cottage of tb.e poor. She was the favorite of 
the religious portion of her people, for she was of ])ious hab- 
its, and a strict observer of the Sabbath day. When she 
found herself blessed with the husband of her choice, and 



saw that choice justified by his virtues, she more than once 
repeated, tliat she was the happiest woman in the kingdom. 

Just eigliteen months after her marriage, her bonnet and 
cloak were on the screen where she placed them, and her 
watch was suspended upon the wall by her own hands ; and 
there they remained untouched for weeks, for the broken- 
hearted survivor would not allow them to be removed, and he 
looked upon them with such fixedness, as if his eyes had 
been marble. Never, perhaps, was there an instance in 
which a whole nation, through all its ranks and degrees, was 
more deeply moved. Never had a mourning been so univer- 
sal; and its universality attested its sincerity. It was as if the 
whole people formed but one aflflicted family, and every indi- 
vidual had lost a dear sister, an affectionate friend, or a kind 
benefactress. To this universal grief, there was but one ex- 
ception, and that was the most lamentable sight of all, for 
to the old king, there was neither sun, nor moon, nor king- 
dom, nor wife, nor children.* 

Somewhat similar has been our experience during the last 
few weeks. It is not, indeed, over departed youth and beauty, 
that the country mourns, but it is over withered hopes, 
blasted expectations, and fallen goodness. The solemn ob- 
servance of this day, these tokens of universal grief are not 
uncalled for. The sorrow is no less considerate and befitting, 
than it is extensive and heart-felt. The United States have 
experienced a heavy calamity. Everj^ incident which has come 
to light respecting the President since his decease, every new 
development of his character which has been brought to our 
knowledge, is fitted to awaken a profounder impression of 

* See the details in the English newspapers, Nov. 1817. 



8 



our loss, and to create a more thorougii conviction, tliat but 
poor justice was done to him while living, even by his more 
immediate friends. 

We are aware, that there may be some, who, now that the 
first shock occasioned by his death has passed away, do not 
regard it as a national calamity at all. He died, they say, at 
the critical moment for his own fame, before he had plunged 
into the treacherous sea of politics. The government will 
move on as strongly and as prosperously as before. Only 
one of the many eminent men in the nation has been re- 
moved. Let us thank God, and take courage. 

But we are not among those who can dispose of a great 
event so summarily. We are not ready to brand tliis uni- 
versal sorrow as a hollow show, or an irrational sympathy. If 
it is not to be viewed in the light of a national judgment ; if 
in the President's death there be no cause for mourning, why 
was he elected to his office ? Why was he borne to it by an 
overwhelming majority ? Why should we raise one to his 
high position whose death would be nothing more than an 
ordinary calamity ? He was not chosen by a mere popular 
impulse. Wise and discerning men thouglit that they saw- 
in his honesty, integrity, and comprehensive views, evidence 
of his eminent fitness for the station. 

We cannot, indeed, say what would have happened, had 
he lived. We do not know but that the country may be 
more prosperous under his successor, than if he had com- 
pleted his term of oflnice. These things do not now concern 
us. They are understood only by God. They do not, how- 
ever, diminish in the least the causes for the national sorrow. 

His death may be, in various aspects of it, a most calami- 



9 



tous event. It may be that his personal influence was in- 
dispensable in order to cany through some one of those promi- 
nent measures, on which, in the opinion of memy. the repose 
of the countT}' depends. It may appear, without reflec- 
tion on any other individual, that a President was needed, 
whose home wa^s neither in the North, nor in the South, but 
in the controlling West. It is a possible thing, that some of 
the great religious interests of the country are destined to 
suflfer several additional years of embcurassment ; and that, 
too. not through any fault of his successor. It may be found, 
that as a people we were not worthy of a President who was 
manifestly a religious man, and who had determined to exert 
that religious influence, w hich is so much needed at our capi- 
tal city, and which is so becoming in the Head of a great 
Christian people. It may be, that the fate of the \\Tetched 
Aborigines was depending on his continued life. Xo para- 
graph in his Inaugural Address was perused with a warmer 
gush of emotion than that which asserted his determination 
to protect their rights. We had hoped, that the time had 
now come when their captivity would be turned back, when 
some of the wrongs which we have ruthlessly heaped upon 
them should be redressed. Their lot has been a hard one, 
and the dav of their extinction draws near. General Harri- 
son might not have been able to arrest their descent ; but he 
would have wiped some of the tears from their cheeks. The 
good old soldier would have placed himself between them 
and the remorseless whiskev-dealer of the frontier. His heart 
was full of tenderness towards them. His death they may 
well mourn with bitterer tears than others shed, for no one who 

•2 



10 



has survived him so well understood their peculiar circum- 
stances ; none would have administered so effectually to their 
relief. For many years, he stood up their unflinching guard- 
ian, when they were infested by hordes of depredators and 
swindlers. 

It is not my intention, on the present occasion, to narrate 
the incidents of General Harrison's eventful life. They are, 
doubtless, perfectly familiar to all who hear me. 

It has seemed to me, that the main features of his charac- 
ter might be legitimately deduced from his Inaugural Ad- 
dress. With the political views contained in that document, 
I shall not meddle. I refer, mainly, to certain moral linea- 
ments which cannot be mistaken. The address is perfectly 
characteristic of the mind from which it proceeded. It bears 
the indubitable impress of the generous soldier, of the man 
of integrity, compassion, forbearance, firmness, patriotism, 
unaffected simplicity. 

Exceptions have, indeed, been taken to it in several respects; 
among others, as a literary performance. It does not exactly 
please the refined scholar. There are too many words in it ; 
and the classical allusions are too frequent. But General 
Harrison was not educated as a scholar. His collegiate course 
was early interrupted, and never resumed. The days of his 
later youth were passed in the unbroken forests and tangled 
swamps of the North West Territory. His intellectual disci- 
phne was gained in unravelling the plots of the wary trapper, 
and in reconciling the feuds of the jealous and fault-finding 
emigrant. His academic halls were the ancient woods of Vin- 
cennes ; the lamps by which he read Csesar and Tacitus were 



11 



the watch-fires of Tippecanoe. Ahnost the whole of his adult 
life, from the time when he received an ensign's commission 
from Washington, was spent in the most laborious practical 
duties, far away from books, and from nearly everything 
which could nurture a correct literary taste. 

We have, however, but little patience with the men who 
dwell on defects of this nature. Such defects are not, in- 
deed, to be overlooked in documents which emanate from high 
places. But compared with certain other things, they are 
lighter than the dust of the balance. What we need in these 
papers are evidences of candor, benevolence, love of country, 
firmness, incorruptible integrity. We want plain, direct, 
straight-forward writing, such as flows from the heart of an 
honest man, though the style may not be modelled after 
Quinctilian, and though the periods are not altogether grace- 
ful. 

General Harrison had studied Roman History attentively 
and fondly, and in the Latin originals. His address through- 
out betrays this predilection, while certain features of his char- 
acter are in accordance with the models with which he was 
familiar. 

He possessed the sterling integrity of some of the old Ro- 
mans. At certain periods of his life, he had immense pecu- 
niary resources at his command. But no one has detected, 
after the sharpest scrutiny, the slightest trace of dishonesty. 
General Harrison never prostituted any office to the purpose 
of personal emolument. By taking advantage of legal tech- 
nicalities, he might have become affluent. In former times, 
land-titles in the western country were loosely secured. In 



12 

one case, it is stated, that an individual recovered .f 80,000 for 
property vi^hich liis ancestors had designed to ahenate, but for 
which they gave no sufficient title. In circumstances almost 
precisely similar, General Harrison, in the right of his wife, 
might have ejected the honest purchaser, and entered upon 
the possession of property of untold value. But, said he, 
*' if I have no 7noral title, I have no legal title." * No man 
who has filled an office in our country has enjoyed so many 
tempting opportunities as General Harrison did, to amass 
gi-eat wealth by deviating from the strict line of integrity, and, 
at the same time, with less risk of detection. But he had 
that nice sense of honor in pecuniary and official engage- 
ments, which shrank from the remotest contact with aught 
corrupt or mean. With Roman fastidiousness, he disdained 
all modes of acquiring wealth, which would not bear investi- 
gation. In the Head of a government, in these times of pecu- 
lation and fraud, liow inestimable such an example of more 
than Catonian probity ! 

All who knew General Harrison, speak of his unaffected 
simplicity. He was a frank, large-hearted, affable farmer. 
In his dress, equipage, manners, domestic arrangements, in 
all his intercourse with society, he was a plain man. Pride 
of office, superciliousness of aspect, impatience of contradic- 
tion, airs of busthng importance, were as alien to him, as if 
he had had no conception of their existence. He was not 
the friend of the people for the sake of winning their ap- 
plause, or of buying their votes. Everywhere, and at all 
times, he showed the same guileless, unassuming deportment, 

* See the Sermon of Rev. Thomas IJrainerd of Pliiladclphia. 



13 



in office and out of office, retiring from public life, and a can- 
didate for its honors. 

These qualities were not, however, isolated and dispropor- 
tionate. If President Harrison had the unostentatious sim- 
plicity of him who was called from the plough to the dictator- 
ship, he had his firmness also. Without a large measure of 
it, he could never have fulfilled the numerous and com- 
plicated trusts which were committed to him. The governor 
of a newly-established, ill-defined territory, filling up with 
emigrants from every region, who were dissimilar in habits, 
and often involved in bickerings and law-suits, must have 
been a man of firm nerves. The superintendent of a score 
of Indian tribes, that were at enmity with each other, always 
jealous of the encroaching white settler, and often the dupes 
of some French renegade, or Canadian sharper, could not 
have proceeded a single step, if he had not had a will of 
his own. 

To these characteristics of integrity, simplicity, and decis- 
ion, which might have flourished, and which did flourish on 
Roman soil, others were associated, which are more peculiarly 
the growth of a Christian land. General Harrison was a re- 
markably kind and compassionate man. In the document to 
which we have referred, there is an entire freedom from all 
acerbity of feeling, from all expressions of bitterness towards 
the party which had so strenuously sought the election of an- 
other individual. There is not a harsh phrase in it. This 
magnanimous forbearance characterised his whole life, military 
as well as civil. Many of the anecdotes related of him strik- 
ingly illustrate his freedom from censoriousness, his habit of 



14 



putting a charitable construction upon the conduct of others. 
In his protracted, pubhc career, he must have met with many 
temptations to indulge in exasperated passion and bitter ani- 
mosity. Even General Washington, on one or two occasions, 
could not control his anger. But among all the military offi- 
cers with whom General Harrison was associated, he had no 
enemy. All unite in testifying to his habitual kindness, and 
his promptitude, in every emergency, to succor those in dis- 
tress. Even the poor comforts which followed him in his wet 
encampments and forced marches, he was prompt to resign to 
one who had greater need, let him be friend or foe. The 
miserable man who had determined to take his life, he prompt- 
ly rescued from his deserved punishment ; thus exemplifying 
that forgiving spirit, which he could not have learned from 
Plutarch or Caesar, but which beams from every page of that 
volume which it was both his habit and his pleasure to read 
morning and evening. 

In respect to the most interesting of all questions relating 
to the deceased President — his religious character — his coun- 
trymen are not required, nor are they competent, to decide. 
This must be left with Him who judges without prejudice or 
partiality, and before whom the distinctions of earth are of 
no avail. Amid the sorrow in which the country is involved, 
it is affecting to observe the solicitude which is felt on this 
point, and which is not confined to the religious press, or to 
professedly religious men. All other questions are merged in 
this : Was General Harrison a true Christian ? Every minute 
circumstance, every casual incident bearing on this subject, is 
repeated, as affording the most precious consolation which 



15 



can be set before an afflicted people. It shows what are the 
honest convictions of men. We are not content with vague 
generahties. In the case of one so much beloved, we cannot 
rest calmly on mere negative evidence. We search for some- 
thing more specific ; we enter into his secret retirements, and 
rejoice to find, that, amid the strife of parties, and even the 
excitements of a triumphal march, he did not neglect his Ma- 
ker, nor his Bible. 

This solicitude indicates, also, that there is a conviction in 
the public mind of the indispensableness of moral principle in 
him who administers our government. We have ceased to 
be frightened with the miserable bug-bear of " Church and 
State." We do not demand that a president or a judge 
should be an atheist, lest he should infringe on the rights of 
conscience. For several years a reaction has been going for- 
ward in the public mind towards the better feelings and prac- 
tices of our early ancestors. Every recognition of a superin- 
tending Providence, every reverential allusion to the Inspired 
Word, in the doings or writings of the high oflicers of State, 
is welcomed with joy by multitudes in every part of our land, 
and of all Christian sects. 

When it was seen, that General Harrison went beyond this, 
and avowed his profound reverence for the Christian system, 
as distinguished from Judaism, or from the religion of nature, 
multitudes hailed it as a still brighter omen. And when, fur- 
ther, it was understood, that this was not mere profession, but 
was the utterance of what the President was, and what he 
meant to be and to do, how could a Christian people help 
feel a rushing of heart towards him ? The blessed days of 



16 



the Winthrops, tiie Trumbulls, the Belchers, the Boudinots, 
the Witherspoons, were coming once more. The high- 
est man in the nation was not ashamed to have it known, that 
he bowed his knees daily to the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and that he had determined, whatever others 
might do to interrupt him, to hallow the Christian Sabbath, 

Now when these joyous anticipations were dashed to the 
ground by his sudden departure, how could a Christian peo- 
ple suppress their tears ? How could they avoid being aston- 
ished at the inextficable mystery ? Most appropriately is it 
regarded as a national judgment. Pertinently is this day set 
apart to learn the solemn lessons which it cannot fail to teach. 

I. One use of this bereavement, we say in general, is the 
same, which should be made in every instance of per^nal or 
family grief. In such a case, you are the subjects of a new 
experience. The stony soil in your hearts is broken up. 
The vain things which cheat men out of the great object of 
life, you instinctively cast aside. Death and the eternal state 
rise up before you as vital realities, which are not to be shuf- 
fled away by any of the devices which fools may invent. So 
in the bereavement which affects a whole people. The na- 
tional heart is softened. The general conscience has an un- 
wonted susceptibility. Practices which are at war with virtue 
and with God, are felt to be what they are, an impertinence, 
or an abomination. When the news of the death of the 
Princess Charlotte Augusta reached London, the midnight 
reveller stole silently away from his unfinished banquet. Not 
a theatre was opened, and, we presume, not an infidel club 
was held, that week, throughout Great Britain. Thus, when 



17 



the intelligence of the great calamity which has befallen our 
country first reached us, amusements lost their power to 
charm ; secular business stood still. Tears came unbidden. 
It was felt that God was in his holy Temple, and that the 
whole land should keep silence before Him. The public 
mind was in that mellowed, softened state, which is one of 
the richest blessings of Heaven ; which indicates the presence 
of the Holy Spirit, affecting millions, as a mighty wind bows 
down the forest, and which, if cherished, is the sure harbin- 
ger of a brighter day. 

H. We are taught by this event the importance of cherish- 
ing kind feelings towards our rulers, and of forming liberal 
judgments of their measures. 

It would shock us now to hear any harsh epithets applied 
to General Harrison. We should turn away in sorrow or in 
anger from him who had it in his heart to vilify the dead. 
We should be ready to eject from civilized society the man 
who could wantonly traduce the motives of one who is now 
alike insensible to human praise or blame. 

But is it not wrong to lacerate the feelings of the living ? 
Is it any palliation of our offence, that the object at which 
we aim our envenomed shafts has nerves which are quick 
W'ith sensibility ? It is a poor business to make war upon the 
dead. But it is a poorer business to injure the feelings and 
vilify the name of the living. 

Yet it has been done to a mournful extent in relation to 
our civil rulers. We do not now refer to any particular in- 
dividual or party. It is a nalional sin. It is the original sin, 
we had almost said, of every party. The utmost ingenuity is 

3 



18 



called into requisition in the invention of abusive epithets, in 
distorting the plainest facts, in tearing open character, and 
then pouring into the wounds the venom of asps. He is apt 
to be regarded as the ablest editor of a newspaper, who can 
use the most stinging phrases, who has at his command the 
largest vocabulary of excoriating epithets. It is not unfre- 
quently mentioned in praise of some zealous orator that he 
flayed alive his poor opponent. Withering sarcasm has come 
into the place of calm reasoning ; the traducing of motives 
into that of respectful remonstrance, or of gentlemanly refu- 
tation. One would think that many among us had passed 
their lives in studying the plays of Aristophanes, or the writ- 
ings of John Wilkes or William Cobbett. 

And the abuse is as indiscriminate, as it is abundant. Who 
does not now see that Mr. Madison did not deserve the tor- 
rent of obloquy which was heaped upon him in 1812 ? Thou- 
sands would gladly recal the hard speeches which they then 
uttered against that illustrious patriot. So we feel it a duty 
to say, tliat many illiberal and unjust accusations were laid 
against the immediate predecessor of General Harrison ; accu- 
sations to wliich General Harrison gave no countenance, and 
whose circulation conferred no honor upon their authors or 
abettors. 

One would think, that it is the great business of men living 
under a free government, to show their freedom by maligning 
their rulers, just as the Athenians showed their democracy by 
ostracising every citizen of extraordinary virtue. But why can 
we not learn to distinguisli between ignorance and bad inten- 
tion, between limited capacity and malice, between ignorance 



19 



which is unavoidable and that which is criminal ? Our rulers 
are not omnipresent. They must often, and necessarily, de- 
cide on imperfect information. If they waited for exact 
knowledge in every case, they would commit flagrant wrong, 
by the delay, in some other quarter. Many of them have not 
the keen-sighted sagacity of Sully, nor the comprehensive 
statesmanship of Burke. They must sometimes test a meas- 
ure before they can decide upon its practical utility. Why 
should we assign a sinister motive, when an honorable one is 
much more probable ? 

An eminent individual is strongly attached to office. He 
wishes to have a voice in public affairs up to extreme old age. 
We attribute it to his ambition, to his love of office for its own 
sake ; whereas it may result from the perfect consciousness 
which he has, that the abandonment of an occupation with 
which he has been fifty years familiar, would be the shipwreck 
of his understanding. The same individual does not act in 
some great emergency as we had anticipated. He does not 
remain steadfast in the traces of the party with which he gen- 
erally votes. We wonder at his inconsistency. We are 
amazed at his wrong-headedness. Now the day of the revela- 
tion of all hidden things may show, that he was not obstinate, 
but conscientious, that his solemn and well-ascertained con- 
victions of duty would not allow Iiim to vote with his party. 
Shall we then visit him with our maledictions ? To his own 
Master, he standeth or falleth. 

Ought we not to practise a little magnanimity ? Ought 
we not to judge our public men with comprehensive and 
Christian charity ? It may be the trade of a partizan to show 



20 



how adroit he can be in tlie use of opprobrious terms. Be it 
ours, so far as we can, to correct this crying national ofience, 
to rise superior to the miserable arts of the demagogue, and to 
demonstrate in our own case the ennobling influence of our 
free institutions, whose foundation rests upon a fraternal and 
affectionate equality. In no other way, can we obey the au- 
thoritative injunctions of the Bible ; for how can we offer in- 
tercessions for " all in authority," when in the next breath, 
we cast out their names as evil, and denounce their knavery or 
incompetency. 

III. Another vice, for which we may be suffering the chas- 
tisement of Heaven, is a want of moral integrity, which is the 
result, in part at least, of an insatiable desire for the acquisition 
of wealth. This is one of the most vicrorous off-shoots of our 
national depravity. And yet, for the most part, it seems to be 
overlooked and uncondcmned. When w^e speak of the of- 
fences for which we are visited in judgment, our minds in- 
stantly revert to the violation of the Sabbath, to intemperance, 
or to the wrongs inflicted by involuntary servitude. But we 
are not certain, that eitlier of these is more offensive, or more 
wide-spread tlian that controlling love of money which is grow- 
ing upon the country and menacing alike its purity and its 
happiness. Thus it was regarded by the departed President. 
In a speech before the Historical Society of Ohio in 1837, he 
said, " The inordinate desire for the accumulation of riches, 
which has so rapidly increased in our coimtry, if not arrested, 
will ere long effect a deplorable change in the character of our 
countrymen. This basest of passions could not exhibit itself 
in a way more destructi\ e to republican principles, than by ex- 



21 



erting an influence on the course of education adopted by our 
youth." 

This impatience of labor, this reluctance to pursue the hon- 
orable and toilsome way for the acquisition of wealth, manifests 
itself in a great variety of forms. It has occasioned a rush of 
young men from the country to the large towns and cities, 
many of whom look with contempt upon what they consider 
the menial and ill-requited tasks of tlie husbandman ; imagin- 
ing that, as merchants or importers, they shall rapidly rise to 
the high places of wealth and consideration. Hence, in the 
reverses or stagnation of business, they are thrown out of em- 
ployment, and are compelled to resort to almost any occupa- 
tion, provided it is in a city, for their habits and tastes are now 
unfitted to the dull and prosaic vocation of the tiller of the soil. 
Hence, also, we may account, in part, for the disgraceful ea- 
gerness which thousands manifest to obtain a public office, say- 
ing like some of former times, " Thrust me into one of the of- 
fices, that I may obtain a morsel of bread ;" preferring to live 
in a sort of precarious vassalage, rather than to go to work, 
like independent men, and earn, by hard labor, the means of 
subsistence. 

Hence, also, the before unheard-of speculations, the stu- 
pendous frauds, forgeries, embezzlement of public funds, ruin 
of character, which are so common now as to cease to create 
any surprise. This vice has infested all classes of society. It 
has even crept into the sacred profession, and men have been 
found who could preach against the love of money on the 
Sabbath, and during the whole of the following week specu- 
late in western lands. 



22 



It is obvious, that something was necessary to stop tliis in- 
sinuating and fatal vice. It was fast corrupting the vitals of 
our prosperity, disgracing our character and institutions in the 
view of the civilized nations of Europe, some of whom are 
not unwilling now to brand us a community of swindlers and 
knaves. If the death of General Harrison, coupled with the 
fact, that both his example and remonstrances were uniformly 
and decidedly in opposition to the vice in question, should be 
the means, in any degree, of turning the minds of men to it, 
with a view to its utter abandonment, then that death, so 
much lamented, will not have been in vain. It may have 
been one of the principal reasons of the frown of Heaven. 
In this matter, we have gone in defiance of the plainest pre- 
cepts of the Bible. We have run counter to the laws im- 
pressed on our own nature, and to the whole tenor of human 
experience. 

IV. One use of this national bereavement may be to teach 
us to estimate more adequately the value of our free institu- 
tions. 

During the last twelve months, these institutions have 
passed through pretty severe ordeals. It has been proved 
again, that there is in them some fitness to our character and 
wants, some adaptation to the genius of the people. It has 
been too common to represent them as arbitrary and conven- 
tional, as something to which the people must inure them- 
selves with long and severe discipline. They are often lik- 
ened to a reed shaken by the wind, to a rope of sand, to a 
sheet of perishing parchment, or to the feeblest and frailest 
objects in nature. It seems to be imagined, that the great 



23 



Aiitlior of our freedom is honored when we speak disparag- 
ingly, or contemptuously, of our political institutions, as 
though he could protect us just as well in some other way, 
by a monarchical establishment, for instance, or a paternal 
despotism, between which and the feelings of the people, 
there is no possible correspondence. It is often said, that our 
frame of government is no defence against exasperated pas- 
sion. It is a mere paper bulwark, which a breath may 
throw down. But is it not thus with any of the works of 
man ? Would not the boasted British constitution be like 
tow in the fire in some conceivable exigency ? And yet that 
instrument is fitted to the spirit and genius of the British peo- 
ple. It has weathered the storms of more than a dozen cen- 
turies. So with our Constitution. It has had somewhat vio- 
lent handling for more than fifty years, and yet it is substan- 
tially unimpaired. It may be battered by some daring inno- 
vator, but it has a self-recovering energy. It may be in- 
fringed upon by some State or local partizanship, but it is so 
nicely balanced, so perfectly adjusted, that the attack will call 
forth a powerful defence from some opposite quarter of the 
Union ; and where one hand of violence is raised for its over- 
throw, a thousand hands will rally for its rescue. God is to be 
honored, we conceive, not by mournful ditties on the worthless- 
ness of these civil privileges, but by praising Him, that they 
are as good as they are, and that He presided in those illus- 
trious councils which gave birth to them. His wisdom was 
most conspicuously manifest. His spirit of conciliation, and 
of comprehensive benevolence was breathed into the hearts 
of the venerable fathers of our republic. One is struck in 



24 



reading the journals of their secret dehberations, with their 
repeatedly-expressed consciousness of the solemnity of their 
work ; that the well-being of a " continent," to use their favo- 
rite term, was suspended on the result of their deliberations* 
It has been confidently predicted, over and over again, by 
the wise and by the unw-ise, that our frame of government 
would not endure this or the other sharp trial. Men trembled 
for the ark when General Washington's steadying hands were 
withdrawn from it. The gulf of ruin was yawning before us 
in the period of the embargo, and of the Berlin and Milan 
decrees. Many men gave up all for lost when the war of 
1812 burst upon us. The financial embarrassments, which 
succeeded, would ruin forever, it was thought, our jniblic 
credit. The horrors of civil strife would inevitably follow the 
discussion of the Missouri question, wliichever way it should 
be decided. Again, when one of the twenty-six planets 
showed some tokens of rushing out of its orbit, the whole 
system, it was supposed, would be thrown into disastrous con- 
fusion. But the sun still shines in the centre, and the goodly 
company of stars hold on their luminous road. The elections 
of the last year were full of inauspicious omens. The im- 
mense meetings of the people would be a fatal precedent. 
The voice of reason would be drowned in the uproar of a mul- 
titude. But the constitution and the country came out of the 
conflict without any serious defacement. It was certainly a 
sublime spectacle to see two or three millions of men meet to- 
gether, with strong political preferences, and elect peaceably, 
without the loss of a single human life, and without anything 

* See the Journals of Mr. Madison. 



25 



which could be termed a riot, a fellow-citizen to preside over 
them, whom most of them had never seen, and who resided 
hundreds or thousands of miles from them ; and then, in the 
course of a few days, to behold all parties quietly acquiesce 
in the w'ill of the majority. It shows, that, with all our de- 
generacy, there is some self-control among us, some true love 
of country. It demonstrates that our Constitution is not that 
miserable parchment, which some men would call it. It 
proves that our fathers' God has not wholly deserted the peo- 
ple whom he once blessed with his presence. 

To one test, however, our institutions had never been sub- 
jected. There was one fire into which their metal had never 
been thrown. No President had ever died in office. No 
one, for any reason, had ever vacated his seat. A provision 
of the Constitution is now, for the first time, practically ap- 
plied. For fifty years the vice-president, as such, was a ci- 
pher in our system. A slumbering article of the immortal 
instrument awakes into life. We have a President, not by 
the choice of even a minority of the people. He assumes his 
office, by the immediate dispensation of Almighty God. 
There is not, however, the slightest jarring in the system. 
When Alexander of Russia died — the only one of the mon- 
archs of Europe who was styled an autocrat — there were se- 
rious disturbances. His legitimate successor soon abdicated 
his office, and the present emperor succeeded, not without 
hazard of the most fearful insurrections. But in our country, 
which is full of the fiery elements of freedom, there has been 
a succession to the chief magistracy, without the slightest de- 
sire or whisper of those changes, which sometimes perplex 

4 



26 



liereditary monarchs. Tliis noiseless and admirable working 
of our system must, we should suppose, exert some influence 
in Europe in favor of republican and representative govern- 
ments. We are aware, that the people of Europe do not 
like to take lessons of us. They are much more apt to chroni- 
cle our misdemeanors, than to study patiently our invaluable 
civil polity. Still, our country is, in this respect, like a city 
set on a hill. The eagerness with which our faults are scan- 
ned shows that our example, be it good or bad, is felt among 
the old despotisms of Europe. Every great and successful 
struggle which we pass through is welcomed by all the friends 
of human improvement from the cliffs of Norway to the rock 
of Gibraltar. Several of the Northern and central govern- 
ments of Europe are gradually extending to their people the 
benefits of representative forms. Whether this improvement 
shall advance any further depends essentially upon us. Dis- 
honesty, want of integrity, misgovernment here, will certainly 
put an end to the generous aspirations which are breathed 
forth there. We cannot but believe, that the severe tests to 
which our civil institutions are subjected, from time to time, 
in the Providence of God, are intended to demonstrate the 
superiority of our system, for the benefit of other nations. 

We are aware, that the common doctrine is, that one form 
of government is as good as another. What is best for us 
could not be administered in Austria. Some tribes of men 
are born to be tlie tools of a despot. All these fond and ar- 
dent expressions about freedom and popular governments are 
but idle prating. The Cossacks and the Tartars must be 
taught, as the men of Succoth were, vvith the thorns and 



27 



briers of the wilderness. But we suppose that the Russian 
* emperor is not always to rule over a nation of rein-deer or of 

wolves. A despotic government is as good as any other, 
provided the people do not know the ditierence between it 
and any other. But the moment you enlighten them, you 
infuse a doubt into their minds whether an irresponsible mon- 
archy is the best form of human government. And just ac- 
cording to the degree in which you enlighten them, to that 
degree you make a popular government indispensable for them. 
The reason why Nicholas is an autocrat is, that his subjects 
are boors. England and France are becoming more en- 
lightened every year, and they are approximating, indisputa- 
bly, to the American theory. Therefore it is, that our exam- 
ple is of immeasurable importance. Therefore it may be that 
God afflicts us, that he may benefit our brethren over the 
"V waters. 

It is, however, objected, that our form of government, by 
its levelling tendencies, annihilates all that wholesome reve- 
rence which every people should manifest towards their rulers. 
This feeling sickens and dies except under the sun-light of a 
monarchy. We deny the position altogether. The observ- 
ance of this day is a refutation of it, borne upwards by voices 
like the sound of many waters, from the Southern Gulf to the 
Lake of the Woods. Yes, the simple observance of this day 
is a tribute of mingled love and reverence from a people to- 
wards a ruler, sublimer than was ever chanted in royal cathe- 
dral, or listened to in the precincts of courts. It was not 
ordered, it was recommended ; it is not a hard service ; it is 
a spontaneous outflow. And it is not a sohtary instance. 



28 



What sovereign in Europe was ever honored as Washington 
is now, and as he will be till the republic which he founded 
shall cease to exist ? 

V. One lesson, we migiit say the great lesson, to be learned 
from this bereavement is, the necessity of a profounder con- 
viction that God is the Governor of the world. 

If there be one truth on the pages of the Bible more lumi- 
nous than any other it is this, that Jehovah is King of kings. 
The Jewish theocracy is sometimes spoken of as if God's 
Providence were confined to it, and as if he permitted the 
contemporary nations to live as they listed. Nothing, how- 
ever, is plainer, than that they felt his punishing arm, or heard 
his cheering voice, according as they sinned or feared before 
Him ; and this too when their conduct had no special reference 
to his chosen race. The cry of the oppressed in Nineveh 
and in Jerusalem alike clothed Him in vengeance. Repent- 
ance Avas equally opportune with both. Monuments of his 
consuming wrath meet you in the Holy City and in the fast- 
nesses of Edom. They jut out from under the second temple, 
they rise up from the sands of Egj'pt, and from the banks of 
the Euphrates. 

All history is full of like examples. Evidences of God's 
supremacy, and of his anger with nations, are chronicled on 
every shore. The lightning has scorched them into the eter- 
nal rocks on every part of the globe. 

Fifty years ago, meji wondered at the events which were 
transpiring in the French capital. There appeared to be no 
cause adequate to the tragedy. France was suffering a pun- 
ishment, not only greater than she could bear, but greater 



29 



than she deserved. Demons could hardly merit a heavier in- 
fliction. But men forgot the age of Louis XIV. and the 
night when the great bell of St. Bartholomew tolled. 

So when the storm of war swept over the central and 
northern kingdoms of the continent, near the beginning of 
the present century. Why were the old capitals of Europe 
sacked ? Why were the hoary thrones of despotism like the 
chaff before the wind ? Why were the Francises and the 
Fredericks compelled to jfiee, like the veriest thieves, under 
cover of midnight ? Because God was remembering Poland. 
When the sun went down upon Austerlitz and Jena, thought- 
ful men recurred to Warsaw and Kosciusko. " Righteous 
are thy judgments," might have been written on " the ocean 
of flame" which rose up from the old palace of the czars. 
Spain too — she suffers a long time, for it will take a long time 
to expiate the innocent blood which her viceroys poured out 
on this continent, for ages, like water. 

May ive not learn a lesson from the honest page of history ? 
Can we safely neglect the warning voice ? Has not God a 
controversy with us ? May not our long-continued commer- 
cial embarrassments, which have brought ruin into so many 
families, and disgiace upon our national character, have a 
deeper cause than our worldly-wise men are apt to imagine ? 
May they not be foretokens of more bitter afllictions to come ? 
Behind this visible scene of things, there is One, " who shut- 
teth up a man and there can be no opening ;" "who leadeth 
away" the most sagacious financiers, the most sharp-sighted 
statesmen, " spoiled ;" " who discovereth deep things out of 
darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death ;" 



30 



" who enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again." 
In the sad event which we this day mourn, is there not some 
other agency than the course of nature, or the ministry of a 
disease ? 

Lay not, therefore, upon thy soul any atheistic unction 
by practically denying the Providence of God, by referring to 
accident or to nature what was meant as a pointed admonition. 
Beware, that thou do not hide thyself under any indistinct 
generalities. If God speaks to the whole people, he speaks 
to thee. Interrogate thyself, personally, under this national 
bereavement. Break off the sins which make a part of the 
vast national aggregate. Beware, lest thou provoke God to 
withdraw in anger from thy country. See to it, that the cry 
of the oppressed does not arm Him in wrath. Pollute not his 
holy Sabbath. Profane no more his awful name, for he is a 
jealous God. Take heed, lest thy thoughtless ingratitude, thy 
abuse of favors and of afflictions alike, prove the ruin of the 
fairest inheritance which the sun in his circuit beholds ; lest 
the friends of freedom and the rights of conscience in other 
lands should curse thee as miserably faithless to the most 
precious hopes ever entrusted to man. 



LEJa'!2 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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